MRGTX

Hey, guys.
The manual door locks on my Cherokee are becoming a problem. The driver side door requires rocking the key back and forth before it unlocks. The passenger side door won't unlock at all with either the key or the rocker inside.

Needless to say, without being able to open the door I cannot remove the panel to take a look.

After a search, I see lots of problems with electric locks on these jeeps but is my issue unique with the manual locks?

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Cheddarnut

Try rolling the window down and rocking the key back and forth while you Try and thumb the lock back and forth. You could try some graphite for the key cylinder, might free it up a bit.

Once it's open, obviously pull the door panel and lube everything.

MRGTX

Thanks, Cheddarnut! So working the key and the interior rocker at the same time has worked for people?

For everything they got right on these XJs the little nagging problems are super irritating

Cheddarnut

I haven't see anyone with a manual stuck like that before. I'm just thinking about the mechanics of the door. It's a series of rods and plastic bushings and a bunch of weird bends. So when you turn the key it's moving a lot of stuff. The interior thumb rocker is connected to the same mechanism, so it's reasonable to think if you work the key and the rocker it will apply more force to the rods and maybe get them to move. Once you get them open you can lube it all up and should be good.

SteveMongr

The 1996 grease on all the bushings,buttons,levers, gets thick with age and gums up the operation. Should return to normal once it is cleaned and lubricated.
Power locks still have manual buttons and suffer from the same issue.

Cheddarnut

Yeah, I had a similar failure but caught it before the doors actually stuck shut. The power locks worked but didn't have enough power to work the mechanism. Pulled my panels greased it all and all the doors work fine now.